Family life -- Juvenile fiction; New England -- Juvenile fiction; Women college graduates -- Juvenile fiction
"So far all is safe, and I'm really beginning to feel as though I was a
real Leavitt and not walking around in Anne's shoes, especially when I
am with Aunt Milly. But it's terribly hard not to talk about Dad and
you and Anne, and I have to hold my lips together lots of times to keep
from bursting out with something. I suppose it's good training for
me--Miss Sykes used to tell me my impulsiveness would be my ruin some
day.
"I have seen the hired man! Yesterday, when I went out to my nest, I
deliberately walked around the edge of the orchard. I saw a lot of
tumble-down sheds and things over on a rise of ground that I supposed
was Judson's, and of course the lot in between was the ten-acre strip
that Webb told me about. I couldn't _see_ that it was any better than
any other part of the country around here. And while I was staring,
suddenly something moved, and there was that creature with a hoe
standing at the other end of the lot. And he waved his hand! Says I,
'Nancy Leavitt, this is your chance,' and I tossed my head so hard that
my neck truly cracked, and I stalked off back to the orchard. It was
good enough for him.
"Oh, oh, oh, Webb has come! He's taken the rig-up around the lilac
side (for strategic reasons, I have divided the grounds of Happy House)
and out to the carriage barn. Now I shall tackle B'lindy and make
ready for the blessed hour of rest.
"Adieu, dearest Claire, pray for your old pal."
The winning of B'lindy to her plan was not as easy as Webb had been.
It had been a "bad" morning for B'lindy; the fire would not draw well,
she had forgotten to "set" her bread, and Judson's cat had gotten into
the cream. Nancy's arguments fell on deaf ears.
"I guess what's well enough's well enough," at last she threw over her
shoulder. "Milly Leavitt's laid on that couch twenty years and it
ain't likely she'll lay there many more, and there ain't no use
meddlin' with what's what!"
"But, B'lindy, no one has ever tried this! It's so easy. Wait until
you see how nice and safe Webb has made the chair. It's wonderful! It
would be wicked to keep her shut up there when we could take her out!
Think of it, B'lindy, all _we_ have and poor little Aunt Milly! Why,
it might make her well! I really know of such a case. It was a woman
who had tried every medicine she knew of and it was just happiness she
needed! If Aunt Milly could get out there in the sunshine and--and see
things, _she_ might get well, too. Anyway, she could laugh!"
B'lindy laid down her egg-beater. It was a sign of yielding.
"I guess nobody's _tried_ happiness on Milly Leavitt!"
"We'll take her together, B'lindy. You may go with me to her room and
see her face when she knows!"
"I told Miss Sabriny that there was no tellin' _what'd_ happen in Happy
House if she brought a young thing like you here," was B'lindy's way of
assent. With an uplifted arm she warded off what threatened to be a
hug.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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